Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.